Spindustry Blog

The world exists online now more than ever as humanity combats the COVID-19 pandemic. People are purchasing everything from groceries to pet supplies on e-commerce platforms. Consumers and businesses have been forced to adapt to this rapidly changing online landscape, and manufacturers have to be ready to do the same.

Manufacturing leaders aren’t exactly diving into the world of ecommerce headfirst. Instead, they’re cautiously dipping one toe at a time into the waters. Several things keep them from going “all in,” so to speak, but one of the most serious is compliance with privacy regulations.

E-commerce is everywhere — unless, of course, you look in the B2B space. Unfortunately, one segment lags behind all the rest when it comes to online sales: manufacturers. Just 38% of manufacturers have e-commerce websites, and only 6% of all manufacturer sales come through this particular channel.

Assuming your e-commerce site comes equipped with all the basics like browse, add to cart, checkout, email confirmation, etc., there are a few features to look out for at the enterprise level. Those often include the following:

For manufacturing and other B2C organizations, the ability to connect with customers is critical. But e-commerce customers can slip through your hands. When they search on Google for your products, they might never make it to your website because it doesn’t rank well. And if a prospective customer does find your site, he or she might not get results with the search feature — even though the desired product is in stock.

The good news? You have solutions. Here are four ways to make your content stronger and start fixing your e-commerce search issues:

While setting up an e-commerce platform for direct-to-consumer sales brings about obstacles including time, money, and the hassle of learning new technological systems, manufacturers can't let those hurdles stop them. If they decide not to develop e-commerce, their competitors will. According to research from the International Data Corp., about half of manufacturers will have direct-to-consumer capability by the end of 2020, and that number will only grow.

The internet has quickly become the go-to marketplace for every industry. E-commerce sales grew at their fastest rate ever and topped $1 trillion in 2018 — and most experts predict that the rate will continue to rise sharply in the coming years.

It’s natural to feel energized when you see your competition making improvements — you want to drive growth for your company, too. Remember: you don’t know if their great advertising got clicks, if their landing page led to conversions, or if that sleek-looking email generated any leads.

Your website is one of the most critical digital marketing assets. One challenge many organizations face, however, is that the website is designed from the company’s perspective and not the customer. As a business, your first inclination may be to focus on what you sell. From the customer’s perspective, they care about if you can solve their problem. Here are three perspectives to keep in mind when redesigning your website or app.

Last year brought many changes to the digital world, but one topic that has always been on the mind of hackers and website developers alike is that of security. The security of login information, e-commerce transactions and other sensitive information are just a few concerns we often hear from clients. It’s important to give thought to and protect all types of data on a website.